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1:48 Airfix Hurricane MkI (naked)


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51957142037_25a6362d9d.jpg

 

After building a couple of Spitfires, I can highly recommend the “new” Eduard MkI kit, I thought I’d have a go at the other main British fighter from the Battle of Britain the Hawker Hurricane.
I was very tempted to build a BoB version, Xtradecal have some nice looking sets, however I thought it would be interesting to attempt another “naked” build, if I enjoy building the kit I’ll almost certainly revisit the BoB scheme.

 

The Hurricane was, like quite a few British aircraft of the time, made from various materials, plywood, aluminium and canvas.

 

Surprisingly these materials made for a very robust airframe that could take quite a bit of damage and still allow a safe return.

 

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Throughout the build I’ll be referencing the hawkerrestorations.co.uk website.

 

Here are some reference photos…

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I’ll be using the “newer” Airfix 1:48 kit…

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I’ll be adding some aftermarket seat harness but otherwise I’ll be building her straight out of the box.

 

 

 

Next as normal I’ll be starting on the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oooooo looking forward to this John.   Nice different metal colours on the wings and that  aft part of the fuselage will be fun!!!

:popcorn:

Chris

thanks Chris

 

the "linen" parts will entail a lot of masking, incidentally I've got 3 shades of MRP linen so I should be able to replicate the shadowed and highlighted areas with a certain amount of consistency rather than "self mixing" the colours and not quite mixing enough, ask me how I know 😉

 

57 minutes ago, amos brierley said:

Hello SC. I over thought what naked entailed  🤨, I would have bet natural metal panels with silver doped linen areas. So, I’m looking fwd to seeing this choice unfold. 😉

thanks brierley

 

you're correct with the natural metal however I'll be attempting the linen as "natural", silver doped would also be an option but I really want the contrast of the materials to be seen.

 

25 minutes ago, 81-er said:

I'm pulling up a pew for this one, I've really enjoyed your previous "naked" builds.

 

James

thanks James

 

I don't think I've seen a naked Hurricane made before, I'm sure that there be some in a museum or two after all mid-war aircraft were constructed so differently to aircraft of the 40's and later? The construction was closer to a bi-plane than a Spitfire? The Halifax was another aircraft with similar materials and of course the Mossie' was mainly plywood, if only the Tamiya 1:32 kit was cheaper.

I've Revell's 1:48 Stearman Kaydet in the stash waiting for the same treatment, I really enjoyed building that kit last year?, or maybe the year before, my memory isn't what it was 😊

 

20 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

This will be good! :popcorn:

thanks dnl42

 

if nothing else it'll be a lesson on how much masking tape can be used in a single build

 

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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7 hours ago, shortCummins said:

you're correct with the natural metal however I'll be attempting the linen as "natural"

 

the linen was red oxide doped, note the plywood 'doghouse' is plywood covered in linen.

 

this is one of the very few Hurricanes I know of that was stripped back to metal, with silver doped fuselage, not doghouse is the same, and there is not much contrast in the engine panels, but the fasteners are darker.

hawker_hurricane_fighter_rhodesia_01_V67

 

 

this is the other side, 

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Taken in Rhodesia just post war, part of RATG

 

there was the Australian one

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and pre war G-AFKX, use for trials with the Rotol prop,  

0000035032.jpg

 

 

Posted more as reference  for what the metal panels look like bare and polished.

 

HTH

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1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

 

the linen was red oxide doped, note the plywood 'doghouse' is plywood covered in linen.

 

this is one of the very few Hurricanes I know of that was stripped back to metal, with silver doped fuselage, not doghouse is the same, and there is not much contrast in the engine panels, but the fasteners are darker.

hawker_hurricane_fighter_rhodesia_01_V67

 

 

this is the other side, 

35050201581_b10d252581_z.jpg

 

Taken in Rhodesia just post war, part of RATG

 

there was the Australian one

34502756910_2979d6f1d8_b.jpg

 

and pre war G-AFKX, use for trials with the Rotol prop,  

0000035032.jpg

 

 

Posted more as reference  for what the metal panels look like bare and polished.

 

HTH

thanks for these Troy

 

I plan to show the aircraft with the materials in their "natural" state, even though the linen and wood would have had some sort of "treatment" applied I want to show them without any type of finish, does that make sense?

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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56 minutes ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

This will be interesting! I'll follow, if you don't mind 

thanks

 

hopefully you'll see what not to do or how to "fix" multiple errors

 

22 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Following with interest John - great to see another of your signature builds!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

thanks Roger

 

I was so tempted by a brown and green camo version after my BoB Spitfire but I've been thinking about a naked one for the longest time, if the kit doesn't fight me too much I'm sure a camo' version won't be too far away

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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2 hours ago, mark.au said:

Sign me up for this one, John.

thanks Mark

 

sorry for not including you with the others, my excuse was I got distracted by Troy's photos, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, it had nothing to do with old age, absolutely nothing, I don't know what would give you that idea 😊

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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9 hours ago, John Laidlaw said:

Looking forward to this, so shall be following along.

thanks John

 

see note to Mark, only in your case I did, or didn't, do it twice, brain farts are getting far too common for my licking

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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51958429474_36802f0680.jpg

 

As I’m planning on showing the “outside” of the aircraft as “natural” materials I have to make my mind up what the cockpit should look like to that end I’ve decided that I’ll paint the cockpit fuselage “interior green” and natural metal, the IP will be black.

Airfix give you the option of opening the machine gun bays and displaying the machine guns however I’m going to leave them closed.

I spent a happy couple of hours or so identifying the cockpit parts and preparing them for primer.

 

There were only 3 places where ejector pin marks needed attention, I used sprue-goo to fill them…

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Stynylrez black primer was used to paint the majority of the interior parts.

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Next I’ll be applying the “base” cockpit colours.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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6 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Nice start John , love this kit.  Just a thought would it be worth opening thegun bays on one wing and leaving it empty showing just the framework??? That would look good.  :poke:

I'll get my coat

:door:

Chris

ha ha

 

the problem is Chris that I just don't trust Airfix to have got the engineering correct, maybe next time if I can find evidence of someone making a half decent effort?

 

I won't be tempted on this build

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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13 hours ago, shortCummins said:

the problem is Chris that I just don't trust Airfix to have got the engineering correct, maybe next time if I can find evidence of someone making a half decent effort?

While Airfix have enlarged errors from the 72nd fabric kit (if only i knew Airfix read here when that came out, and had gone over it properly...) 

unrestored plane in Finland

IMG_6658.JPG

 

2526720177_80636cc825_b.jpgSea Hurricane by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

20 hours ago, shortCummins said:

I have to make my mind up what the cockpit should look like to that end I’ve decided that I’ll paint the cockpit fuselage “interior green” and natural metal, the IP will be black.

the only grey-green part are the upper side walls and the rear bulkhead.  The inside of the metal hatch below the cockpit is aluminium paint, as is all the framework, as seen here, same unrestored plane as above

IMG-6596.JPG

 

from 

HTH

 

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thanks Troy, 

 

the info and photos are really helpful

 

I'll paint the lower part of the cockpit aluminium 👍

 

the photo of the ammunition being loaded show some nice grubbiness on the wing, I'll use that as a reference for future weathering

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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51967560975_1da3c5a3d9.jpg

 

Thanks to Troy for pointing out that only the “top half” of the cockpit was interior green, I probably would have missed that even though its in Airfix’s instructions.

 

As Xtreme metal paint dry very quickly I decided to paint the “metal” parts before the interior green.

I decided to use a couple of aluminium hues, whilst these are very close I’m hoping that the slight differences will add a little bit of interest.

 

First up I used AK488 matte aluminium for both cockpit and other parts.

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Other pieces were painted with AK478 white aluminium.

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Next I’ll be applying the interior green and detail cockpit colours.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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51971133788_f39bb63ce8.jpg

 

The aluminium colours were left to dry for an hour or so, not really necessary to leave them so long but better safe than sorry, and the bottom of the fuselage was masked before Alkan BS:283 grey/green was applied.

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I also painted the armoured headrest and firewall, I don’t think the firewall will be visible?

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Various Vallejo colours were used to pick-out different features 70.995 German grey, 70.957 red, 71.077 wood and 77.717 dull aluminium.

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to anyone building this kit it might be worth getting some aftermarket for the cockpit, the Airfix details aren't as good as they could be.

 

 

Next I’ll be working on the IP.

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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51972192452_f4248a1d31.jpg

 

The very nicely moulded IP was given a coat of Tamiya XF-85 rubber black.

51975262518_ca43423e3f_c.jpg

 

I was going to cut out each instrument dial individually but decided that Solvaset would be “just the thing”

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The IP decal was left overnight and then given a coat of MRP-125 semigloss varnish.

51975186196_0e9ec1e780_c.jpg

 

After an hour or so the dials had “glass” added with drops of mig ultra glue…

51975745510_3c02150c59_c.jpg

 

…after the glue had dried.

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Whilst I had the semigloss in the airbrush I gave the couple of cockpit decals protective coat.

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Next I’ll be assembling the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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